Monday 7 October 1667

Up betimes, and did do several things towards the settling all matters both of house and office in order for my journey this day, and did leave my chief care, and the key of my closet, with Mr. Hater, with directions what papers to secure, in case of fire or other accident; and so, about nine o’clock, I, and my wife, and Willet, set out in a coach I have hired, with four horses; and W. Hewer and Murford rode by us on horseback; and so my wife and she in their morning gowns, very handsome and pretty, and to my great liking. We set out, and so out at Allgate, and so to the Green Man, and so on to Enfield, in our way seeing Mr. Lowther and his lady in a coach, going to Walthamstow; and he told us that he would overtake us at night, he being to go that way. So we to Enfield, and there bayted, it being but a foul, bad day, and there Lowther and Mr. Burford, an acquaintance of his, did overtake us, and there drank and eat together; and, by and by, we parted, we going before them, and very merry, my wife and girle and I talking, and telling tales, and singing, and before night come to Bishop Stafford, where Lowther and his friend did meet us again, and carried us to the Raynedeere, where Mrs. Aynsworth, who lived heretofore at Cambridge, and whom I knew better than they think for, do live. It was the woman that, among other things, was great with my cozen Barnston, of Cottenham, and did use to sing to him, and did teach me “Full forty times over,” a very lewd song: a woman they are very well acquainted with, and is here what she was at Cambridge, and all the good fellows of the country come hither. Lowther and his friend stayed and drank, and then went further this night; but here we stayed, and supped, and lodged. But, as soon as they were gone, and my supper getting ready, I fell to write my letter to my Lord Sandwich, which I could not finish before my coming from London; so did finish it to my good content, and a good letter, telling him the present state of all matters, and did get a man to promise to carry it to-morrow morning, to be there, at my house, by noon, and I paid him well for it; so, that being done, and my mind at ease, we to supper, and so to bed, my wife and I in one bed, and the girl in another, in the same room, and lay very well, but there was so much tearing company in the house, that we could not see my landlady; so I had no opportunity of renewing my old acquaintance with her, but here we slept very well.

26 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

I wonder how Bess would've enjoyed meeting the infamous Mrs. Aynsworth, Sam's youthful Mistress Quickly?

Carl in Boston  •  Link

The sun rises, and with it the star of Mrs Aynsworth. The world's oldest profession, and what a professional she was. Rising in wealth at every move, making it to the church in time, onward and upward. Excelsior.

Claire  •  Link

"...and there bayted, it being but a foul, bad day..."

Can anyone shed light on "bayted" in this context?

language hat  •  Link

"bayted" = baited 'stopped to take refreshment.' "Bait" is related to "bite"; OED:

5. trans. To give food and drink to (a horse or other beast), esp. when upon a journey; to feed.
1375 BARBOUR Bruce XIII. 589 Than lichtit thai.. Till bayt thar horss. [...]

6. (refl. and) intr. Said of horses or other beasts: To take food, to feed, esp. at a stage of a journey.
c1386 CHAUCER Sir Thopas 202 By him baytith his destrer Of herbes fyne and goode. [...]

7. intr. Of travellers: To stop at an inn, orig. to feed the horses, but later also to rest and refresh themselves; hence, to make a brief stay or sojourn.
1375 BARBOUR Bruce XIII. 599 A litill quhile thai baitit thar. 1475 CAXTON Jason 37b, They cam for to bayte in the logging wher her frende Jason had logged. 1577 HOLINSHED Chron. II. 16/2 The caue or den wherein saint Paule is said to haue baited or sojorned. 1659-60 PEPYS Diary 24 Feb., At Puckeridge we baited, where we had a loin of mutton fried. 1777 SHERIDAN Trip Scarb. I. ii, To bait here a few days longer, to recover the fatigue of his journey. 1874 MOTLEY Barneveld I. iv. 179 They set forth on their journey—stopping in the middle of the day to bait.

Victoria  •  Link

I think 'bayted' is just an alternative spelling of 'bated' (now only seen in 'bated breath') which just means stopped or lessened.

BOB  •  Link

per Mapquest UK, the distance from London to Brampton is 66 miles & to Bishop's Storpford 35. A two day trip in 1667 takes about 2 hours today.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" my letter to my Lord Sandwich, ..., telling him the present state of all matters,"

L&M note a draft copy dated 7 October at the Navy Office, "inter alia touched on the 'unsatsfactory' peace with the Dutch, parliament's enquiries into expenditures, the King's measures of economy, Clarendon's fall, and the work of the new Treasury commission. It also pleaded for better relations between Sandwich and Coventry."

language hat  •  Link

"I think ‘bayted’ is just an alternative spelling of ‘bated’ (now only seen in ‘bated breath’) which just means stopped or lessened."

No, actually it's not.

Ric Jerrom  •  Link

"Bait" was what coal miners in Yorkshire put in their bait-box to eat, mid-shift, until UK coal-mining was largely abolished for all the wrong reasons by a misguided or vindictive government in the 1980s. It seems at least possible to me that the sense of abating work - having a break - might have named the snack. "Bait time" is when you stop work, and when you eat your "bait". Both stopping and refreshing...

language hat  •  Link

Please read my comment quoting the OED above. The first sense of the noun was "An attractive morsel of food placed on a hook or in a trap, in order to allure fish or other animals to seize it and be thereby captured." From there it comes to mean "Food, refreshment; esp. a feed for horses, or slight repast for travellers, upon a journey. Still dial. light refreshment taken between meals":

1570 LEVINS Manip. /203 Bayt, refrigerium, refectio. 1573 TUSSER Husb. 203 O thou fit bait for wormes! 1661 LOVELL Hist. Anim. Min. Introd., When they [serpents] devoure any great baite, they contract themselves. 1706 E. WARD Hud. Rediv. I. XII. 24 Could (if she 'ad had her Will) have eat The Saddle Stuffing for a Bait. 1741 RICHARDSON Pamela (1824) I. xxxii. 56 Stopping for a little bait to the horses. 1851 Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., Bait, provision taken by a pitman to his work. 1883 Harper's Mag. Apr. 655/1 Afternoon ‘bait,’ or lunch [in Sussex].

cum salis grano  •  Link

an aside:
Never forget that wind abates sometimes and the sails enjoy their respite.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

An Order, by the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, concerning regulations for the quartering of Troops in Dublin; upon occasion of a Petition from the Mayor & Citizens of that City
Written from: Dublin Castle
Date: 7 October 1667
_____

Answer of the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to the Petition of the Mayor, Sheriffs, & Citizens of Dublin concerning the quartering of soldiers in that city
Written from: Dublin Castle
Date: 7 October 1667

http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…

The Petition with dangerous implications was submitted two days ago. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"...my letter to my Lord Sandwich, which I could not finish before my coming from London; so did finish it to my good content, and a good letter, telling him the present state of all matters..."

The life, journals and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, &c. Volume I, pp 117ff.
http://books.google.com/books?id=…

Ivan  •  Link

As an inhabitant of Enfield I would very much like to know where exactly Mr Pepys and company took their refreshment in Enfield on this "foul, bad day". Does anyone know?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Pepys's route from London to Huntingdon is basically the Roman road Ermine Street aka the Old North Road

Ermine Street begins at Bishopsgate, where one of the seven gates in the wall surrounding Roman London was located. From here it runs north up Norton Folgate, Shoreditch High Street and Kingsland Road through Stoke Newington (forming Stoke Newington Road and Stoke Newington High Street), Tottenham, Edmonton and Eastern Enfield (Ponders End, Enfield Highway, Enfield Wash and Freezywater) to Royston. This section of Ermine Street from London to Royston, Hertfordshire is now largely part of the A10. At this point it crosses the Icknield Way. From Royston, it was formerly the A14 to the A1 but now it is the A1198 to Godmanchester (Durovigutum). Ignoring bypasses and modern diversions, the road through Huntingdon to the Alconbury junction on the A1 gives the line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erm…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Bishop Stafford, where Lowther and his friend did meet us again, and carried us to the Raynedeere, where Mrs. Aynsworth, who lived heretofore at Cambridge, and whom I knew better than they think for, do live."

Elizabeth Aynsworth had been banished from Cambridge by the university authorities and had settled at the Reindeer Inn at Bishop's Stortford, Herts., a well-known stopping place on the road between London and Newmarket. There she throve and she became involved in in an affray in 1677. On one occasion the proctor who had sent her away from Cambridge dined there. He was served with a 'most elegant supper all in plate' which he and his party '. New and Complete Hist. Essex (1770), iii, 130-1. (L&M note) https://books.google.co.uk/books?…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Bishop Stafford, where Lowther and his friend did meet us again, and carried us to the Raynedeere, where Mrs. Aynsworth, who lived heretofore at Cambridge, and whom I knew better than they think for, do live."

Elizabeth Aynsworth [a notorious procuress] had been banished from Cambridge by the university authorities and had settled at the Reindeer Inn at Bishop's Stortford, Herts., a well-known stopping place on the road between London and Newmarket. There she throve and she became involved in in an affray in 1677. On one occasion the proctor who had sent her away from Cambridge dined there. He was served with a 'most elegant supper all in plate' which he and his party 'were afraid to touch lest they should have a lord's reckoning to pay. Upon which the woman appeared, and said it was the least she could do in return of that Gentleman's whipping her out, by which she had so much advanced herself'. [A gentleman] New and Complete Hist. Essex (1770), iii, 130-1.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Samuel Pepys

Perhaps Betty Aynsworth’s most well known visitor was Samuel Pepys, who made several entries in his diary referring to the ‘Raynedeere’:

7th October 1667 : ..and before night did come to Bishop Stafford {sic}, to the Rayndeere – where Mrs Aynsworth (who lived heretofore at Cambridge and whom I knew better than they think for, doth live – it was that woman that, among other things, was great with my cosen Barmston of Cottenham, and did use to sing to him and did teach me ‘Full forty times over’, a very lewd song) doth live, a woman they are very well acquainted with, and is here what she was at Cambridge, and all goodfellows of the country come hither. We to supper and so to bed. And lay very well, but there was so much tearing company in the house, that we could not see my landlady, so I had no opportunity of renewing my old acquaintance with her. But here we slept very well.

23rd May 1668 : ..I with the boy Tom, whom I take with me, to the Bull in Bishopsgate Street and there about 6 took coach, and so away to Bishops Stafford {sic}, and there dine and change horses and coach at Mrs Aynsworth’s; but I took no knowledge of her. Here I hear Mrs Aynsworth is going to live at London; but I believe will be mistaken in it, for it will be found better for her to be chief where she is then to have little to do at London, there being many finer then she there.

By ‘taking no knowledge of her’ it would seem there may have have been some ‘falling out’ between Pepys and Betty because on his return journey from Cambridge he dined at the Boar’s Head in Windhill (See Guide 4).

26th May 1668 : .. and so about noon came to Bishop’s Stafford {sic} to another house then what we were at the other day, and better used; and here I paid for the reckoning 11s, we dining all together and pretty merry.

Bishop’s Stortford & Thorley - A History and Guide
Market Square (Reindeer Inn)
http://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

According to this article about Isaac Newton's interesting theories on cures for the plague, it mentions that Cambridge University only reopened in 1667, so he was home on the farm thinking about gravity for two years of social distancing. Two months has me crazed.

https://www.theguardian.com/books…

Marquess  •  Link

This Cottenham would be the place from which the Pepys family would take the title of their earldom a 170 years later. Incidentally a new heir to the current earl of Cottenham was born a few days ago, so the Pepys family is thriving.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"It also pleaded for better relations between Sandwich and Coventry."

I reviewed all our notes on Sandwich, and it seems this goes back to the prize goods sandal. In short, Sandwich let his men take more than they should have, but he took less than he was entitled to. Plus he let his men ransack VOC ships, instead of protecting the goodies so the Prize Commission could take a year deciding what to do with the contents, by which time half would have gone bad.

In normal times, this probably would have blown over. However, Sandwich's boss James and his servant, Coventry, and Sandwich's friend Chancellor Clarendon were all politically vulnerable. Sandwich evidently blamed Coventry for not protecting him, being sidelined during the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and the posting to Spain (everyone else was a peer of the realm).
I think Rupert was equally to blame ... but he's second in line to the throne.

If anyone has a better understanding of this falling out, I'd love to be reminded.

For basic info on prize goods, see ... and there are links to the dates involved ...
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

George Fox and friends also spent time in Enfield in 1667:

'When I came to Gerrard [Roberts]’s, he was very weak, ... After I had stayed about three weeks there, it was with me to go to Enfield. ...

'When I had taken my leave of Gerrard, and was come to Enfield, I went first to visit Amor Stoddart, ... and within a few days after, Amor died.

'I went to the widow Dry’s, at Enfield, where I lay all that winter, warring in spirit with the evil spirits of the world, that warred against Truth and Friends. For there were great persecutions at this time; some meeting-houses were pulled down, and many were broken up by soldiers. Sometimes a troop of horse, or a company of foot came; and some broke their swords, carbines, muskets, and pikes, with beating Friends; and many they wounded, so that their blood lay in the streets.

'Amongst others that were active in this cruel persecution at London, my old adversary, Col. Kirby, was one. With a company of foot, he went to break up several meetings; and he would often inquire for me at the meetings he broke up. One time as he went over the water to Horsleydown, there happening some scuffle between some of his soldiers and some of the watermen, he bade his men fire at them. They did so, and killed some.

'I was under great sufferings at this time, beyond what I have words to declare. For I was brought into the deep, and saw all the religions of the world, and people that lived in them. And I saw the priests that held them up; who were as a company of men-eaters, eating up the people like bread, and gnawing the flesh from off their bones. But as for true religion, and worship, and ministers of God, alack! I saw there was none amongst those of the world that pretended to it.

'Though it was a cruel, bloody, persecuting time, yet the Lord’s power went over all, His everlasting Seed prevailed; and Friends were made to stand firm and faithful in the Lord’s power. Some sober people of other professions would say, “If Friends did not stand, the nation would run into debauchery.”

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 2

'Though by reason of my weakness I could not travel amongst Friends as I had been used to do, yet in the motion of life I sent the following lines as an encouraging testimony to them:

“My dear Friends:

“The Seed is above all. In it walk; in which ye all have life.

“Be not amazed at the weather; for always the just suffered by the unjust, but the just had the dominion.

“All along ye may see, by faith the mountains were subdued; and the rage of the wicked, with his fiery darts, was quenched. Though the waves and storms be high, yet your faith will keep you, so as to swim above them; for they are but for a time, and the Truth is without time. Therefore keep on the mountain of holiness, ye who are led to it by the Light.

“Do not think that anything will outlast the Truth. For the Truth standeth sure; and is over that which is out of the Truth. For the good will overcome the evil; the light, darkness; the life, death; virtue, vice; and righteousness, unrighteousness. The false prophet cannot overcome the true; but the true prophet, Christ, will overcome all the false.

“So be faithful, and live in that which doth not think the time long.
G. F.”

'After some time it pleased the Lord to allay the heat of this violent persecution; and I felt in spirit an overcoming of the spirits of those men-eaters that had stirred it up and carried it on to that height of cruelty. I was outwardly very weak; and I plainly felt, and those Friends that were with me, and that came to visit me, took notice, that as the persecution ceased I came from under the travails and sufferings that had lain with such weight upon me; so that towards the spring I began to recover, and to walk up and down, beyond the expectation of many, who did not think I could ever have gone abroad again.

'Whilst I was under this spiritual suffering the state of the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven was opened to me; which some carnal-minded people had looked upon to be like an outward city dropped out of the elements. I saw the beauty and glory of it, the length, the breadth, and the height thereof, all in complete proportion. I saw that all who are within the Light of Christ, and in His faith, of which He is the author; and in the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, which Christ and the holy prophets and apostles were in; and within the grace, and truth, and power of God, which are the walls of the city; I saw that such are within the city, are members of it, and have right to eat of the Tree of Life, which yields her fruit every month, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 2

'Many things more did I see concerning the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, which are hard to be uttered, and would be hard to be received. But, in short, this holy city is within the Light, and all that are within the Light, are within the city; the gates whereof stand open all the day (for there is no night there), that all may come in.'

From "The Autobiography of George Fox"
CHAPTER XVII.
At the Work of Organizing 1667-1670.
https://ccel.org/ccel/fox_g/autob…

SPOILER: In 1671 Fox goes to the Caribbean and America for 2 years. Sadly, he didn't find his New Jerusalem there either.
https://ccel.org/ccel/fox_g/autob…

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